Oklahoma

‘The Killers of the Flower Moon’ is an Oklahoma story with Texas ties

There’s a much-anticipated film coming out next month. It’s the latest from Martin Scorsese and stars Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio. Texan Jesse Plemons also has a big role — playing a Texan from history. Commentator WF Strong profiled the story when it was told in a bestselling book with the same name as the new film: “Killers of the Flower Moon.”

A version of this commentary first aired on March 20, 2019.

This Texas folk trio was lost to time – and that’s mostly OK with them

In an apparent first since the Dobbs decision, five women have filed suit against the State of Texas challenging the state’s abortion ban.

There’s frustration among immigration advocates amid reports that the Biden administration is considering reviving the practice of detaining migrant families who cross the border illegally, a policy initially shut down by the president shortly after taking office.

Tech expert Omar Gallaga on employer surveillance of workers and why it’s growing.

And the award-winning documentary “Nobody Famous” shines a light on the Pozo-Seco Singers, a Corpus Christi folk trio you’ve likely never heard of.

Texas Standard: April 7, 2022

Governor Abbott announces a plan to send busloads of migrants to Washington D.C. in protest of the Biden administrations immigration policies. We’ll have more on an increasingly pitched battle over immigration between the Biden Administration and Texas’ Governor. Also, the passage of a near total ban on abortion in neighboring Oklahoma, and the implications for Texas. And the first outbreak of avian flu in Texas reported at a commercial pheasant farm, and how experts are hoping to avoid a worst case scenario. Plus is feral hog hunting having the opposite of the intended effect? Those stories and more today on the Texas Standard:

Texas Standard: April 6, 2022

After a Texas law that restricted abortion access went into effect, some Texans sought abortions in Oklahoma. But now that state’s legislature has passed a bill that would make performing them a felony. Plus rural Texas is losing population. We’ll tell you about how one town in East Texas is trying to stop that trend. Also news on farmers and ranchers recovering from wildfires and the latest headlines from up and down the Lone Star State. All of that and more today on the Texas Standard:

Texas Standard: July 19, 2021

A Texas judge puts the brakes on a program designed to defer deportations of younger migrants to the U.S. We’ll hear about the implications, short and long term, for the DACA program after a federal judge in Houston rules it unlawful. Also, 5 Texas democratic lawmakers who left the Lone Star State to protest proposals for new voting restrictions have tested positive for COVID-19, and Texas doctors voice concerns about rising numbers of juvenile and adolescent covid cases. We’ll have the latest. Plus Van Horn Texas prepares for its moment in the national spotlight. Those stories and more today on the Texas Standard:

Wit And Wisdom From T. Boone Pickens

By W.F. Strong

Even before I knew much about T. Boone Pickens, I loved his name. Has there ever been a better name for an oil man than T. Boone Pickens? It’s just right as rain. And the man behind the name was so perfect for it that it disproved Shakespeare’s claim that any other name would work as well. I loved to hear him talk because his Southwestern dialect so perfectly underscored and certified his folk wisdom and humor. He was a chairman of the board with true blue-collar cred. The title of his last book showed he was beautifully grounded in both worlds: “The First Billion is the Hardest.”

Boone, as many called him, was an Oklahoman and a Texan. When asked which he was, he said, “both.” He straddled both states like a giant derrick – raised in both, drilled in both – and both benefited from the hundreds of millions he gave through his philanthropy, from M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, to UT Southwestern Medical Center, and to Oklahoma State University, among others.

Boone Pickens would have certainly died a multi-billionaire had he not given away the majority of his fortune, and he loved giving it away. He said, “Giving away money wasn’t as fun as making it, but it was a close second.”

When he died, he left behind a poignant letter for his social media followers. It contains his humor, his wisdom and inspiring advice for life. I’ll share some of it. He said:

If you are reading this, I have passed on from this world — not as big a deal for you as it was for me.

In my final months, I came to the sad reality that my life really did have a fourth quarter and the clock really would run out on me. I took the time to convey some thoughts that reflect back on my rich and full life.

I was able to amass 1.9 million Linkedin followers. On Twitter, more than 145,000 (thanks, Drake). This is my goodbye to each of you.

You can find more of T. Boone Pickens’ parting words on his web site.

I’ll end with Boone’s most famous bit of advice, not included in his letter:

“Every day you should work eight hours and sleep eight hours. Make sure they’re not the same eight hours.” Now let’s do what Boone would do – get on back to work.

The Mystery Of The Osage Murders

One of the best books I’ve read this year is “Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI.” I was late to this literary party. This nonfiction work has been a super-bestseller for well over a year now. It has been on the Paperback Nonfiction bestseller list for 49 weeks. Dave Eggers writes in his New York Times Book Review that author “[David] Grann has proved himself a master of spinning delicious, many-layered mysteries that also happen to be true. … It will sear your soul.”

I won’t spoil this book for you by revealing any part of the whodunit. I’m more interested in the who pursued ‘em.

You have three levels of tension here. First, there is the Osage tribe – the richest people per capita on Earth at the time, around 1920. They were the only tribe that owned mineral rights to the worthless land they got from the federal government as their very own reservation in Oklahoma. Why not? It was worthless scrub-brush land that was mostly sandy and rocky with random clumps of grass. When oil was discovered, though, they became, collectively, unfathomably rich. J. Paul Getty, for instance, was in a bidding war Harry Sinclair for Osage oil leases. Soon after the money started piling up, the Osage started dying, mysteriously, and in large numbers.

The second level of tension is that they were being murdered, seemingly randomly. “Serial killer” was not yet a term in the crime lexicon, but as a reader, you arrive at that conclusion quickly. You feel it must be a serial killer. But not one singular method was used. Some Osage were shot, some poisoned, some blown up in their homes with dynamite. Sixty had died by the time that J. Edgar Hoover took the case for the feds. It was up to him to find the killer or killers.

Here’s the third level of tension. Hoover was just acting director of what was called the Bureau of Investigation at the time. He was only 29 years old. The case was a blessing and a curse. If Hoover could solve it he could elevate the this new agency to a formidable and powerful national police bureau. If he failed, he would be pushed out; his career hung in the balance. Hoover was wanting to create an FBI that was modern, full of smart college graduates skilled in the use of the latest scientific techniques like fingerprinting, but the last agents sent to solve the mystery either made no headway, or were themselves killed. To solve this case, Hoover needed to send to Oklahoma the kind of agent he wanted the agency to shed.

Now, at this point you might be saying, as my dear sister-in-law said to me when I told her this story, “Why are you, Mr. Texas, talking about Oklahoma?” I’ll answer you as I did her: “Hold your horses, I’m fixin’ to get there.”

Hoover had to bite the bullet and bring in the cowboys. He sent for Tom White, his bureau chief in Houston, who was an ex-Texas Ranger, to take charge of the case. As Hoover said, “He needed a man who could handle men.”

It wasn’t exactly a “one riot, one ranger” situation, but it had elements of it.

Grann describes him this way: “Tom White was an old-style lawman. He had served in the Texas Rangers near the turn of the century, and he had spent much of his life wandering on horseback across the Southwestern frontier, a Winchester rifle or a pearl-handled six-shooter in hand. He was 6 feet, 4 inches and had the sinewy arms and eerie composure of a gunslinger.

Years later, a bureau agent wrote that he was as “God-fearing as the mighty defenders of the Alamo. He was an impressive sight in his large, suede Stetson. … He commanded the utmost in respect and scared the daylights out of Easterners like me.”

Of course, it was a white Stetson he wore.

Hoover explained to White that he needed him to direct the investigation without a hint of scandal, and as quietly as possible. He told him there could be “no excuse for failure.” Hoover told him to call in as many agents as he needed, and so White called in those men that Hoover considered the cowboys (two were ex-Texas Rangers) – men who were good at “infiltrating wild country, dealing with outlawry, shadowy suspects, going days without sleep, maintaining cover under duress, and handling deadly weapons if necessary.”

So there you go. The plot is set. The characters are in place. A great Texas story awaits, even though it’s set in Oklahoma. If you don’t care to read the book just now, you can wait for the movie, which, rumor has it, will be directed by Martin Scorsese and star Leonardo DiCaprio. De Niro is said to be in talks for a role as well.

I’m W.F. Strong. These are Stories from Texas, by way of Oklahoma. Some of them are true.

Texas Might Have Been Smaller

Texas Standard: July 11, 2017

20 items: a lot for state lawmakers to do in one month of a special session. But with days before it starts, they’re adding to their workload. We’ll have the lowdown. Plus, for many small Texas communities, Walmart’s the biggest game in town. But what happens when the big box store shutters its doors? Today, a tale of two cities. And when the Texas governor sent the guard to the border, he didn’t mean the Rio Grande. The Red River rivalry that almost became a literal war between the states. And why if you’re a Texan, we bet you haven’t heard about it. Those stories and a whole lot more today on the Texas Standard:

Big 12 Football

Big 12 conference play starts this weekend with Oklahoma State at Texas and TCU at Texas Tech. That was the inspiration for this week’s Typewriter Rodeo poem by Kari Anne Roy.

Green Room: Come and Take It!

Come and Take It!’ It’s more than just a motto on an historic Texas flag: it’s a rallying cry that resonates with the independent spirit of the Lone Star state. Little wonder, then, that politicians are invoking the phrase in a growing protest over what some ranchers see as a ‘land grab’ by the federal Bureau of Land Management. Jim Malewitz of the Texas Tribune recently visited the land in dispute–and he says the case may alter the Red River border between Texas and Oklahoma.